I really don't believe its the American work ethic. I think that is an excuse. Its more to do with no Casino and no duty free shopping. Who wants to be on a ship for 7 days and have no Casino(a big money maker for the ships) and no duty free...
Having sailed the POAloha three months after she started cruising in Hawaii, the casino wasn't the real problem. Was it inconvenient? Yes. I didn't think I'd miss it, but when push came to shove, there was nothing to do after dinner and before the shows. Would it have stopped me from cruising if I had to do it again? No.
It absolutely was the staff walking off the ship. G'ma is correct. We spoke to many of the staff who told us exactly what G'ma said - they were given a wonderful story from NCL about how great it is to work on a ship and then found it wasn't like they were told.
The service on the POA was absolutely awful when we sailed - we were clearing off the buffet tables ourselves because there was no staff to do it. If you wanted a table, you had to clean up after the people before you who just left their dishes at the table.
My understanding from clients who have sailed since then is that there had not been a lot of improvement since then either.
We also spoke to our NCL reps. who have told us that NCL has to pay a lot of money for each employee to be certified by the Coast Guard to said the American flagged ships and it was costing them a fortune for these certifications only to have the employees walk off the ship.
When ships are foreign flagged, the cruise lines hold the employees passports so it isn't very easy for them to jump ship. NCL couldn't do anything about the staff just marching off the American ships.
The idea was nice, but NCL didn't anticipate it was going t be such a problem to maintain staff on the ships. Americans won't work the hours that are required on cruise ships for the pay that comes with it.
And that's too bad, because NCL is the only one with 7 days cruises to Hawaii, which helps when people can't get two weeks off to cruise to Hawaii from the West Coast.
Passenger Vessel Services Act summary to date
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I really don't believe its the American work ethic. I think that is an excuse. Its more to do with no Casino and no duty free shopping. Who wants to be on a ship for 7 days and have no Casino(a big money maker for the ships) and no duty free...
Having sailed the POAloha three months after she started cruising in Hawaii, the casino wasn't the real problem. Was it inconvenient? Yes. I didn't think I'd miss it, but when push came to shove, there was nothing to do after dinner and before the shows. Would it have stopped me from cruising if I had to do it again? No.
It absolutely was the staff walking off the ship. G'ma is correct. We spoke to many of the staff who told us exactly what G'ma said - they were given a wonderful story from NCL about how great it is to work on a ship and then found it wasn't like they were told.
The service on the POA was absolutely awful when we sailed - we were clearing off the buffet tables ourselves because there was no staff to do it. If you wanted a table, you had to clean up after the people before you who just left their dishes at the table.
My understanding from clients who have sailed since then is that there had not been a lot of improvement since then either.
We also spoke to our NCL reps. who have told us that NCL has to pay a lot of money for each employee to be certified by the Coast Guard to said the American flagged ships and it was costing them a fortune for these certifications only to have the employees walk off the ship.
When ships are foreign flagged, the cruise lines hold the employees passports so it isn't very easy for them to jump ship. NCL couldn't do anything about the staff just marching off the American ships.
The idea was nice, but NCL didn't anticipate it was going t be such a problem to maintain staff on the ships. Americans won't work the hours that are required on cruise ships for the pay that comes with it.
And that's too bad, because NCL is the only one with 7 days cruises to Hawaii, which helps when people can't get two weeks off to cruise to Hawaii from the West Coast.